This study aims to investigate the association of air pollution with overnight change in 4body composition and sleep-related parameters. Body composition of 197 subjects in New Taipei city was measured before and after sleep by bioelectric impedance analysis. Air pollutant data were collected from Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. Sleep parameters were examined by polysomnography. We observed fine particulate matter (PM2.5) decreased arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) and increased apnea-hypopnea index (AHI); NO2 increased arousal, AHI, and decreased mean SaO2; and O3 inmcreased mean SaO2. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/LY294002.html We observed 0.99-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with 18.8% increase in changes of right arm fat percentage (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.004, 0.375) and 0.011-kg increase in changes of right arm fat mass (95% CI 0.000, 0.021). 2.45-ppb increase in NO2 was associated with 0.181-kg decrease in changes of muscle mass (95% CI -0.147, -0.001), 0.192-kg decrease in changes of fat free mass (95% CI -0.155, -0.001), 21.1% increase in changes of right leg fat percentage (95% CI 0.012, 0.160), and 21.3% increase in changes of left leg fat percentage (95% CI 0.006, 0.168). 1.56-ppb increase in O3 was associated with 29.3% decrease in changes of right leg fat percentage (95% CI -0.363, -0.013), 0.058-kg increase in changes of right leg fat free mass (95% CI 0.008, 0.066), and 0.059-kg increase in changes of right leg muscle mass (95% CI 0.010, 0.066). We observed AHI was associated with overnight changes in fat percentage, total fat mass, muscle mass, bone mass, fat free mass, extracellular water, basal metabolic rate, leg fat percentage, leg fat mass, and trunk fat percentage (p less then 0.05). In conclusion, exposure to air pollutants was associated with overnight body composition changes and sleep-related parameters. Nocturnal changes in total muscle mass and leg fat percentage likely contribute to the relationship between air pollution and obstructive sleep apnea.Lithium recovery from brines has become a hot topic. The current evaporitic technology is slow, and serious environmental concern has been raised regarding the large volumes of water used, relating both to brine concentration through evaporation, and intensive pumping of fresh water needed in the fine chemical processing to produce high purity lithium carbonate. In this work, an experimental and theoretical analysis of brine desalination using a double-slope Solar Still was carried out. The Solar Still was installed right next to an existing lithium mining facility in northwest Argentina, and was tested with native high salinity lithium rich brine for a continuous year under the typical weather conditions of lithium deposits high altitude, large thermal amplitude between day and night, strong winds, and high solar radiation. The performance of the solar still as an evaporator was compared with that of a PAN evaporimeter class A, and correlated to experimentally determined weather parameters. While the performance of the Solar Still for brine concentration was below that of open air evaporation, the Solar Still allowed for the production of an average of 2 L day-1 m-2 of distilled water, in marked contrast with current practice. Numerical simulations allowed us to quantify heat exchanges in both the Solar Still and the open air system.Information on transfer of elements and their radionuclides is essential for radioecological modeling. In the present study, we investigated the transfer of Cl, Co, Mo, Ni, Se, Sr, U and Zn in a boreal freshwater food chain. These elements were selected on the basis that they have important radionuclides that might be released into the biosphere from various stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. Water, sediment, chironomid larvae (Chironomus sp.), roach (Rutilus rutilus) and perch (Perca fluviatilis) were sampled from two ponds near a former uranium mine and one reference pond located further away from the mining area. Concentrations measured in water, sediment and the three animal species indicated the importance of sediment as a source of uptake for most of the elements (but not Cl). This should be considered in radioecological models, which conventionally predict concentration in aquatic organisms from concentration in water. The results also show that the assumption of linear transfer (constant concentration ratio) may not be valid for elements into fish. The results of this study show that further basic research is needed to understand the fundamental processes involved in transfer of elements into freshwater organisms in order to develop radioecological models.Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a novel, non-invasive sampling procedure that allows the obtaining of genetic material directly from environmental samples without any evidence of biological sources. The eDNA methodology can greatly benefit from coupling it to reliable, portable and cost-effective tools able to perform decentralized measurements directly at the site of need and in resource-limited settings. Herein, we report a simple method for the selective analysis of eDNA using a magneto-assay with electrochemical detection. The proposed method involves the polymerase chain-reaction (PCR) amplification of mitochondrial eDNA of parasitic Salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis), extracted from seawater samples. The eDNA sequence was targeted via sandwich hybridization onto magnetic beads and enzymatic labeling was performed to obtain an electroactive product measured by differential pulse voltammetry. Quality by Design (QbD), a recent concept of science- and risk-oriented quality paradigm, was used for the optimization of the different parameters of the assay. Response surface methodology and Monte Carlo simulations were performed to define the method operable design region. The optimized electrochemical magneto-assay attained a limit of detection of 2.9 amol μL-1 of the short synthetic sea louse DNA analogue (43 bp). In addition, robustness testing using a further experimental design approach was performed for monitoring eDNA amplicons. Seawater samples spiked with individuals of free-swimming L. salmonis copepodite stages and seawater collected from tanks with sea lice-infested fish were analyzed.